There's a Republican guy running in the 4th Congressional District to replace retiring incumbent John Doolittle. His legal name is Theodore Terbolizard. Seriously. He was born – on Leap Year Day, 1968 – as Theodore J. Hommel. His current last name is a combination of an Internet term for "geek" and a nickname he gave to his daughter's mother.
According to his Web site, Terbolizard is a musician, artist, video producer, Internet news anchorman and "highly competitive recreational league slow-pitch softball pitcher, with a tall breaking curve." He also was briefly a 2003 gubernatorial candidate.
Here's the weird part. Terbolizard was scheduled to have a fundraiser in Grass Valley on Friday night. Among the scheduled speakers was his brother, Jason Hommel. Brother Hommel was set to "discuss silver investments." That's right: an infomercial at a political fundraiser.
It's going to be a long year.
The vote that never happened
You can criticize California legislators all you want, but you can't reasonably argue they're not resourceful little rascals.
Consider, for example, AB 337. The bill would have equalized state criminal penalties for possession or sales of crack cocaine and powder cocaine. Bill supporters argued higher penalties for crack have a disproportionately bigger impact on African Americans and low-income groups.
But when the measure fell four votes short of the 41 it needed for passage last week, Democratic leaders realized they had a potential problem: Republicans, none of whom voted for the bill, could level campaign charges that 37 Democrats had voted for a bill to lower penalties for using or selling crack.
So minutes after the bill died, majority floor leader Karen Bass, D-L.A., moved to "expunge" the vote from the record, meaning there's no official record to cite come campaign time. Her motion passed 46-28, on a party line vote.
For the un-record, Democrats Juan Arambula, Mike Feuer, Lloyd Levine, Ted Lieu and Lois Wolk voted no on the bill, while Democrats Cathleen Galgiani, Betty Karnette, Pedro Nava, Ira Ruskin and Nell Soto didn't vote. The rest would be guilty as charged – if only there was an official vote.
Hard on taxes, soft on crime?
Meanwhile, Assembly Republicans were faced with a dilemma of their own. Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, had a bill that would have banned taking tax deductions for expenses incurred as a result of any illegal activity. Currently, deducting expenses for some crimes, such as pimping or bookmaking, is illegal. But it's OK for other crimes, such as bilking senior citizens or defrauding insurance companies.
Reeps didn't want to appear sympathetic to criminals, but they also have a blood oath to oppose anything that looks, smells or sounds like a tax increase. So they took the expedient route: All but one of them (Joel Anderson of Alpine, who voted no) declined to vote at all. The bill, which required 54 votes, failed on a 46-1 vote.
That vote, by the way, is on the record.
Worth repeating
"It's hogwash, complete hogwash. Most of his department's money is in special funds, anyhow, so you can't really even touch it."
- Steve Maviglio, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez. He was responding to Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner's claims that legislators had threatened his department's budget because Poizner is leading the fight against Prop. 93, which would alter legislative term limits.
The Buzz is compiled by The Bee's Capitol Bureau and written by Bee columnist Steve Wiegand. Reach him at (916)321-1076 or swiegand@sacbee.com.
